The White Sox almost got no-hit while I was in Bowling Green watching Noah Schultz pitch for Winston-Salem. They avoided that kind of history, as well as a shutout with a frenetic five-run ninth that would've been a lot more exciting were they not trailing 9-0 entering the final inning.
That said, here's a bullet-point recap:
*Zack Wheeler saw Spencer Turnbull throw 6⅓ no-hit innings on Friday and decided to raise him two outs, throwing seven innings of scoreless, hitless baseball. Between his eight strikeouts and nine groundouts, it was one of the White Sox's sleepiest efforts of the season.
*The contact did start getting louder over the course of the game, with Dominic Fletcher, Braden Shewmake and Andrew Benintendi all lining out. Korey Lee's inside-out swing wasn't nearly as authoritative, but he produced a bouncer that squeaked past Bryce Harper at first base for the White Sox's first hit with eight outs remaining.
*The White Sox eventually loaded the bases on Nicky Lopez's third walk and an Eloy Jiménez single, but Gavin Sheets popped out to end the threat.
*The Sox finally dented the scoreboard in the ninth, and with a surprising five-spot. Ricardo Pinto opened the inning by walking Andrew Vaughn on five pitches, then gave up an Andrew Benintendi single. He struck out Lenyn Sosa, but Fletcher finally found grass with a third line drive -- a muscled jam shot, not a rocket -- for an RBI double for their first run in 19 innings.
*The runs kept coming. Lee made it a crooked number with a deep drive that doinked off the glove of a sliding Brandon Marsh in the left-field corner for two more runs. After a Shewmake groundout, Nicky Lopez drew his third walk of the game, after which Jiménez and Sheets delivered RBI singles to make it a Dolly Parton Game, 9-5.
*When Pinto plunked Vaughn to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of Benintendi, Rob Thomson went to the bullpen for the lefty José Alvarado. Pedro Grifol stuck with Benintnedi, who bounced out on the first pitch to end the game.
*The Sox trailed 9-0 because of a whole bunch of reasons. Michael Soroka gave up a two-run shot to Marsh on a down-and-in changeup in the second, and an RBI single on an OK sinker before the inning was over.
*Soroka had the chance to escape with a non-awful line, but when Grifol brought in Banks to face Marsh with two outs and two on in the fifth, Banks walked Marsh, and then gave up a two-run single to NIck Castellanos, which made it 5-0.
*Banks gave up three singles over the course of four batters during a two-run sixth, and then Lenyn Sosa and Gavin Sheets ran into each other to give the Phillies an extra out in the seventh, and Trea Turner converted on the opportunity with a two-run double.
*Vaughn committed a throwing error when his attempt to get the lead runner at second on a chopper forced Paul DeJong to leap off the bag.
*DeJong left the game after getting plunked on the elbow by a Wheeler pitch.
